Russians, Ukrainians to Merge for Football Super League?

A study group is being set up to design a format for a football super league, featuring the best teams from Russia, Ukraine, and possibly other countries.

Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller mentioned the idea first, wanting to create something similar to ice hockey's KHL, and Russia's top football officials are now considering it.

They hope to attract more interest in the competition while increasing revenues to help meet new UEFA financial fair play rules. CSKA Moscow president Evgeny Giner suggested the league’s first season could be played 2014-15 at the earliest.

UEFA "has said it will allow the unification of championships," Giner stated. "We need to make it so there is fan interest, sponsor interest, TV interest." However, the Russian football bosses said the new league would neither be a championship for the CIS union of post-Soviet states, nor a franchise system like basketball’s NBA or ice hockey’s NHL.

"It’s possible all 16 Russian [Premier League] clubs will compete and all 14 Ukrainian [top flight] ones," said Sergey Pryadkin, Head of the Russian Premier League. "Then we will have to think about creating a second group or some sort of other option."